Germaine swung down from the tree branch her hands had been latched on to, and dropped down into a crouch once her feet hit the ground. She stood up, and looked around for another good tree to climb when she heard the sound of hooves hitting dirt and the wheels of a carriage. She turned around to see a Lucifenian carriage making it's way down the dirt road about 40 yards away from her, raised up on a hill away from the field. She smiled, knowing that it meant her father had returned from his business at the Royal family's summer home. Germaine stopped her climbing tree search, and broke out into a jog towards their large home. It was a rather large house, but definitely way too small to be considered anything close to a mansion. Still, she loved it and treated the home as a treasure. Her short, reddish brown hair flopped back and forth with each stride as she made her way over to the front of the house, reaching there just in time to greet the carriage. She dusted her hands off on her red shorts and pulled out any wrinkles in her shirt. The door opened, and she ran over to it with a smile.
"Welcome back Dad!" She cheered, and jumped onto the big burly man in the crimson armor, almost knocking him over with the force of the hug. He put his armored hands around her waist and lifted her up above his face.
"How is it you've grown this much in two days? I'll have to stop feeding you so that doesn't happen again!" He teased, and Germaine giggled. But she stopped when she saw someone else inside the carriage, a boy about four or five years younger than her with bright blonde hair was staring back at the girl fearfully. Leonhart saw that she had noticed him, and slowly lifted her down to the ground again. "Germaine, I'd like you to meet Allen." He gestured for the boy to step out, and he reluctantly did while clinging to the loose white shirt that seemed way too big for him. She looked up to her dad with confusion, and he sighed, placing a hand on the boy's head. He winced at his touch, but didn't say anything in complaint.
"Dad?" she said, glancing back and forth between the two as if she were watching fish jump in a lake. He smiled, and glanced down to Allen.
"He's going to be living with us from now on, as your brother." He said, and the boy clasped his hands together while glaring at the ground. He doesn't look to excited about being my brother. She thought, but nodded her head anyways and reached her hand out to him
"I'm Germaine" She said, trying to sound as friendly as possible. But Allen swiped her hand away and looked away from her with his glare still present. Her eyes narrowed and dropped her hand. "Fine then!" She turned to her father with anger on her face and put her hands on her hips. "I don't like him either!" Germaine stomped her foot and proceeded to storm off into the house, hands balled into fists at her side. Leonhart sighed and looked down at Allen, who was now on the verge of tears. He knelt down and put his hand on his shoulder.
"She'll warm up to you, she's just a hot headed girl is all." He said, and threw back his head to laugh. But Allen's face didn't change, and he pressed his hands closer to his chest."Hey, hey now" He said to him, and the boy tearily looked up. "It'll be alright. It's very peaceful here, I'm sure you'll love it. Everything just.. takes time to get used to.' He nodded, and Leonhart led him into the house and proceeded to show him around. Germaine watched them from afar, wondering where the boy had come from and why her father was taking him in, especially because he just didn't seem to want to be there. She tried to be angry, tried to hate him, but this frustrating sympathy forcing it's way through her mind irritated the girl to no end. She didn't want to become any more sympathetic towards that wimpy boy, so she stomped off from her place on the dark wooden stair case and went to the right, out the back door and into the field behind their house. It was filled with dirt and grass that stretched down along the road for what seemed like forever, bordered on the other side by the forest of bewilderment. Her house was in a more 'desolate' part of the town, with only houses lining the right side of the road, the left holding farms, horse stables, and a small river running through it all. She went and stormed off into the forest, planning to take a shortcut through it to reach Chartette's house faster, but her father's voice cut her journey short.
"Germaine!" he called, and she turned around immediately on instinct. The boy was with him, and her shoulders immediately drooped, but she answered him anyways in order not to be rude.
"Yeah?" She yelled back at him.
"You're going to Chartette's, right? Why don't you take Allen along with you and introduce him?" He asked. Chartette was Germaine's best friend, and had been long before she could keep any memories. She walked closer to the two boys, and Allen went up to greet her reluctantly. He held out his hand, and she cocked her head to the side.
"Nice to meet you." He said flatly, but she did see a bit of kindness in his face. But after closer inspection, she noticed he looked extrememly similar to Lucifenia's prince. Actually, she thought, he looks exactly like him, with the same name even. Cautiously, she shook his hand. But she excused herself straight afterwards and walked past him to her father, confonting him about the situation. Her dad sighed, and put a hand up to his forehead. He knew that this would happen, and had come up with a lie to cover his extreme resemblance to the prince. But it still felt wrong to lie to his daughter.
"Thats why he's coming to live with us. His parents named him after the prince, and in an extreme coincidence he turned out to be one of his three doppelgangers" Germaine gasped slightly, and looked back at the boy who was looking back at her with a confused expression. She turned back to her father.
"Seriously? That's one of the biggest coincidences Iv'e ever heard of." It was a commonly known fact that everyone who is born into the world has three doppelgangers of themselves strewn about the world, but she's never heard of one being born around the same time as another, let alone being of the same name. "So, why is he living with us?" she asked.
"His parents were killed in a fire, and people were unwilling to take him in because they could barely support one child there." She looked back at him, then back to her father and sighed.
"You could've just said he was a homeless doppelganger an I'd be less bored, you know." Leonhart laughed, and apologized for boring her. Germaine grinned, then rolled her eyes. "I'll take him over to Chartette and introduce him, happy?" He smiled and ruffled her hair.
"That's my girl." He said, and she pushed off his head.
"What's going on?" Allen asked, and she turned around with her hand on her hip.
"You're coming with me to go and play or whatever, that's what." She said, and walked over to him, grabbing the boy by the elbow and pulling him towards her friend's house whilst keeping her excited grin from the boy, as her father watched the two with a smile.
